A black sociology professor at Vanderbilt University is arguing that “white privilege” is to blame for last week’s riots and looting in Baltimore, Md.

The professor, Tony N. Brown, took to the op-ed pages of The Tennessean late last week to make the claim.

White people act “routinely to harm, demean, and damage black and brown people,” Brown wrote in Nashville’s main newspaper. These actions “explain the lofty levels of frustration and despair among black and brown youth.”

The professor, who has a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, cites other unrelated incidents as evidence of the riots after the April 19 death of Freddie Gray while in police custody. He recalls the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity members at the University of Oklahoma who sang a shockingly racist song. He also alludes to the white South Carolina police officer charged with murder for shooting at a fleeing black man eight times.